By Ganiu Bamgbose (PhD)

Two common personality disorders are inferiority complex and superiority complex. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines an inferiority complex as “a basic feeling of inadequacy and insecurity, deriving from actual or imagined physical or psychological deficiency. Inferiority complex makes you think less of yourself and gives you the impression that you are not good enough. On the other side of this is superiority complex which is a belief that your abilities or accomplishments are somehow dramatically better than other people’s. It sometimes manifests in the form of narcissism; an excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance.

While these two disorders have enjoyed robust discussions, a similar psychological situation is yet to be accounted for in literature or public discourse and this I have labelled ANTICIPATORY COMPLEX.

Anticipatory complex is a feeling of unrest about the rise of a junior or younger person. It happens when a person feels his or her worth, prestige and/or privileges will be rivalled by a youngster. Sadly, such feeling of unrest which usually results in envy and hatred reduces the productivity of the superior person, and it, ironically and unfortunately, makes the manifestation of the fear faster.

On the one hand, one would say such a feeling pops up naturally in any or every human being when competent younger persons surface in one’s field. On the other hand, one’s conscious and deliberate reaction to such reality determines if it will become a disorder or makes you see another version of yourself. These two situations are determined by one’s decision to either embrace COLLABORATION or COMPETITION.

The spirit of collaboration makes you think of how you and the newbie or budding professional can engage in joint works to improve your profession. The newbie leverages your expertise and you too tap from their fresh insights and together you can remain relevant with no one posing a threat to the other. The spirit of competition makes you think of how to always outsmart the newbie, thus losing out of what positive effect such person can also add to your craft.

While it is not compulsory to make the first move as the more experienced person, even if it is not equally wrong, a warm reception of the newbie and readiness to provide support serve as a catalyst for a healthy relationship. This brings to mind my first encounter with a professor of English and a popular error analyst among the scholars of English in Nigeria, Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji, sometime in 2018, when he was a PhD and not yet a professor. The gentleman scholar had been popular with his DG (Daily Grammar) on social media and especially among English scholars in Nigeria when I surfaced in the community of scholars with my “English for Today”.

On reading my WhatsApp message where I had expressed my admiration for him and his engagements, he responded that he had saved my contact on one of our mutual groups with the hope to engage me someday and that I had just taken the step faster. Such warmth from a senior person was the best thing that happened to me that week and it may interest you to know that we have both grown, by God’s grace and through efforts, to remain two of the best in our field. This growth is in addition to Dr Mahfouz Adedimeji becoming a professor of English in the University of Ilorin and the vice chancellor of Ahman Pategi University, Kwara State within that time and now, and I, also bagging my PhD shortly after the start of our closeness.

A good way to complete this piece and speak against anticipatory complex is to say that a light does not quench by lighting up another. Being part of others’ rise simply increases one’s chances of sporadic growth while also keeping us in good record for posterity. Are you made? You are not yet a success until someone is made through you. Kill anticipatory complex just so that it does not kill you.

Bamgbose writes from the Department of English, Lagos State University